Friday, January 9, 2015

Fisher Price Friday - Pull-A-Long Lacing Shoe

It's time to start the new year with a new (old) Fisher Price toy. This week it's the Play Family Pull-A-Long Lacing Shoe #146. Made from 1970-1975 this rolling shoe was a shape sorter with a few fun tricks.

The red, yellow, blue and white shoe is made of plastic with a wooden base and plastic wheels. It should have a red/white or blue/white lace up the front. My lace is missing as is common in many used sets. It also came with a yellow plastic pull in the front, typical of other pull sets.

The family included 4 children, a mother and the uniquely shaped dog. The children were two yellow triangles; a girl with a smile and a girl with a frown and two red squares; a boy with a smile (and no hair) and a freckled boy with a smile. You will notice that I have two of the same red boys rather than a red boy without freckles.

It can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between girls and boys, the girls had "ribbons" on the top of their otherwise bald heads that look a lot like curly hair.

The original set (1970-1973) came with people that had wooden heads and bodies. My set has a few of each as seen in the photos. The Lucky dog is special and was always all wood. He has a lovely black circle/bell shaped base and a white head. The last figure is the mother, who was all wood originally then changed to a plastic head. However, note that she should be wearing glasses which makes her resemble a grandmother more than a mother despite her original description as "mom".

The shoe had shapes painted in the front opening for each shape to correspond with. The squares, triangles and circle sit on top while the mom sits inside a hole.

Around the sides and back of the shoe are marvelous lithographs of the mother and her children. If you look closely you can also see a black and white spotted dog, the same pull-a-long shoe toy, kittens, a squirrel, birds, two children holding hands and a boy riding a tricycle.

Each side also has shaped holes for the corresponding figures to fit into.

Lithographs on this toy tend to be pretty beat up and often missing completely. Because of the curve of the shoe they are easily torn and worn during play. My Pull-A-Long Lacing Shoe is typical of wear for a toy this age. They are often missing people, laces, pulls and lithographs!

This was not the first shoe play set from Fisher Price, it was actually the third and final in the series.